Testament - The Legacy (1987)Release ID: 1501
Testament were always one of my favourite bands back in the early 90s, but I must admit not appreciating this album as much as I should have. While I was totally into The New Order and Practice What You Preach, I didn't give this one much of a listen.
Going back to it over the last few weeks has been a reawakening. While thrash was in its infancy back in 1987, this album was amazingly mature. Perhaps some of the lyrics were not so, but musically this album was up there with Slayer and Metallica for raw talent. Over the Wall, The Haunting, Alone in the Dark and Apocalyptic City are all fantastic, but there really aren't any bad tracks on The Legacy. As usual, Skolnick and Peterson are awesome on guitar and Chuck Billy rocks out in his inimitable style.
This is not Testament's best album, but as a debut release and considering the year it came out, it's a damn fine album with some classic tracks and great performances.
1987 was one of the most incredible years in the history of recorded music. We had experts of practically every genre belting out some of the most amazing compositions you've ever heard, even reaching parts of your soul you didn't know you had. Most famously, Guns N' Roses had released their diversified and spirited street rock debut Appetite for Destruction, which is ranked among the finest debut albums ever, Def Leppard had improved once again on their essential arena rock album Hysteria, Swans mastered their sense of atmospheres with a wide-ranging album called Children of God, Dead Can Dance let out their best album, Within the Realm of a Dying Sun, Webber's Phantom of the Opera made it to vinyl, Paul Simon kickstarted a worldbeat fad with Graceland, Jackson followed up Thriller with perfection on Bad, and even Karajan released the most haunting version of Requiem I've ever heard. I haven't even dived into David Sylvain, U2, Helloween or Dinosaur Jr. here.
With so many raw classics from many different worlds, you're probably wondering, where's the thrash metal? Right here. Testament's The legacy is yet another powerful debut which spelled nothing but good for the band's future. While this style had largely been done many times before, taking a couple little points away from the originality, you'd be hard-pressed to find any riffs this insane that came out during 1987. Some of Skolnik's riffs even rival that of the works of Slayer on their albums Seasons of the Abyss and South of Heaven. The Haunting is one of the finest examples of just how wild the band can go. And another excellent plus is Chuck Billy's voice. He sounds like that darker middle ground between Dave Mustaine and Vince Neil with all of the good attached and none of the bad. And because his voice is deeper than both, his overall sound is just extraordinary. Chuck's got the perfect voice to replicate if you wanna start a pizza thrash band like Havok.
While this is an absolutely standard thrash album as far as its sound and diversity goes, the musicianship is peak and the riffs are some of the best in the whole genre. While I can't really compare this to some of the more creative legends like Rust in Peace and And Justice for All, this comes close and deserves to be checked out by anyone getting into metal, not just thrash. Even if all you like is cheesy stuff like Acheron, I'd still recommend this.
My first encounter with Californian thrash metallers Testament was way back in 1989 when I picked up their “Practice What You Preach” album shortly after release. I’d only recently been converted to thrash metal the previous year through The Big Four & had heard that Testament sounded a lot like Metallica & had a brilliant lead guitarist so I decided to throw caution to the wind by purchasing the CD blind. That risk certainly paid off as I found that not only were the reports I’d heard accurate but that Testament were a genuine force to be reckoned with in their own right & this may well have been the moment that saw my interest in extreme metal leaving my more traditional metal interests in the dust as I’d finally seen that there was more to thrash than just the Big Four. All of a sudden there was a whole new world available to me that quickly escalated to death & black metal in just a matter of months & saw me leaving Testament behind in favour of more extreme bands like Morbid Angel, Bathory & Pestilence. My fellow Metal Academic administrator & younger brother Ben perhaps took even more strongly to the Bay Area thrash of “Practice What You Preach” & subsequently purchased both of Testament’s earlier albums in 1988’s “The New Order” & their highly celebrated 1987 debut “The Legacy”, both of which I jumped all over.
Testament’s debut (which took the band’s previous moniker for its title) stands out from its older brethren in that it’s a little rawer & thrashier & it seems to be held on somewhat of a pedestal as a result. Is it warranted? Well… yes & no. The production is the first of my concerns as the rhythm guitar sound isn’t what I would hope. It’s weaker & muddier than the premier thrash releases of the time &, while this is nothing terribly unusual for a mid-80’s thrash debut, it does nullify one of the albums major strengths to an extent. That’s right! You’ve guessed it! The rhythm guitar performance is exceptional & features a higher level of complexity & precision that 90% of Testament’s peers. James Hetfield & Dave Mustaine would have been proud of what their disciples had accomplished here (well James would have been anyway) as their influence is obvious in the high speed staccato rhythms & it’s a real shame that the production didn’t emphasize these like it did for a band like Exodus on their respective debut. On top of the underlying aggression though, we find a layer of melody that keeps Testament sounding a touch more accessible than bands like Slayer or Exodus. There’s a clear pedigree in traditional heavy metal in the guitar harmonies with Iron Maiden obviously having made an early impact on the band. Joe Satriani student Alex Skolnick’s guitar solos certainly live up to the hype as they walk the listener through an expansive array of melodic sub-themes that often hint at the neoclassical techniques of legendary Swedish guitar virtuoso Yngwie Malmsteen. Does it all work? Well… to be honest I think that Skolnick sometimes pushes his focus on melody a little too far & it results in a few cheesier moments that tend to detract from the aggressive thrash atmosphere. I don’t recall Testament’s follow-up album “The New Order” suffering from similar issues so perhaps Alex learnt from his first-up effort.
Front man Chuck Billy has become somewhat of an enigma within thrash circles. He’s a huge unit of a man with a massively powerful voice that commands the listener’s attention but I have to admit that I’ve never rated him quite as highly as some. His performance on “The Legacy” certainly has its moments but I think he was perhaps a touch ambitious in his attempts at creating some catchy singalong choruses as I’m not sure his skill sets were developed enough to pull them off just yet. This is one of the things that prevents me from reaching for the higher scores actually as many of these tracks build up to the chorus hooks beautifully but when you finally get there you sometimes find that they don’t quite deliver as much as you’d hoped. For this reason I find that I really enjoy all of the tracks on the impressively consistent tracklisting but I rarely see my sweet spot being pushed on for long enough to consider reaching for my “classic” stamp. Final track “Apocalyptic City” is the exception to the rule as it manages to steer clear of the previously mentioned attempts at catchy hooks & delivers an emphatic statement to close out the album. In fact, it could be argued that the best two tracks on offer are actually the last two & that leaves me with the feeling that Testament may have been better served by an alternative arrangement of the tracklisting. Regardless, there are no weak tracks here. The melodic Maiden-ish verses of “Burnt Offerings” are probably the low point but even then I find it to be reasonably enjoyable.
“The Legacy” offers a high quality & distinctly Californian brand of thrash metal that competes well with the finer debuts of the genre. In fact, while it may not challenge Exodus’ “Bonded By Blood” for the crown, I’d go so far as to say that I prefer “The Legacy” over some of the more high profile debuts like “Kill ‘Em All” & “Killing Is My Business… & Business Is Good!”. The professionalism & maturity of this record is almost unheard of in thrash circles & it was very clear that Testament were on a path to the top of their chosen craft. 1988’s “The New Order” has always been my preferred Testament record but “The Legacy” gives it a good run for its money & should be respected as a statement of intent from a talented group of musicians who were really going places.
Take run of the mill 80’s Thrash and then take away pretty much any weaknesses you could find in the genre. That’s really Testament’s debut, which added absolutely nothing new to the realm of Thrash, but did everything just about as well as anyone could have. Crunchy riffs, wild solos, and a precise, speedy rhythm section played some of the tightest standard Thrash put to record. Every single song is top quality.
The most interesting factor about this album is actually Chuck’s vocals, which have surprising versatility especially for a Thrash vocalist. He can yell with the best, but he can also shift his pitch quite a bit, and carry melodies when he has to, and even throws in a couple death growls for good measure. The production is also as good as 80’s metal got, which is especially surprising for a debut. They didn’t invent anything new here, but at step one they had already mastered the craft.
I have to admit that over the years I probably haven't given Testament the credit they deserve, dismissing them as just another Megadeth / Exodus knock-off. I'm returning to them now after many years and have to admit that this, their debut, is one hell of a great record. The riffs are classic thrash chuggers and Alex Skolnick's solos are scintillating and vibrant, guaranteed to make your neck hairs stand on end! Chuck Billy's vocals are great, particularly for a thrash singer, with a versatility few vocalists in the genre could equal. On the downside, the production could be better, the bass in particular seems to have got buried in the mix somewhere.
And then there's the songs. There's some anthemic tracks on here, such as The Haunting, Alone in the Dark and Do or Die, which surely has one of the most singalong choruses in thrash. There really isn't a duff track during the entire 38 minutes which, by the way, is virtually the perfect length for such a high octane thrash album. Just goes to show, it's never too late to re-evaluate music that may have previously underwhelmed you. Sorry guys!
Life outside of the Big 4 of thrash metal isn't always as constant a struggle as you may be forgiven for believing. By the time their debut full-length dropped in 1987 Testament were sailing into very well-known waters for the average thrash metal fan. By this stage we had heard three Metallica albums, a multitude of Slayer albums including the much lauded Reign In Blood, a couple of solid releases from Mustaine and co and Anthrax had just dropped Among The Living a month earlier. The Legacy therefore had to land with a real splash to make any impact. Even though I wasn't around the metal scene then, it is clear from spinning the record some 30 years after it was released that it could hold its own against any of the aforementioned artists and their key albums to this point.
Whilst it wasn't as extreme as Reign In Blood or as accomplished as Master of Puppets, Testament had a major asset over everyone else in the ballpark at the time and his name was Chuck Billy and he gave The Legacy a unique edge over almost anything that thrash metal had heard before. I feel he is often overlooked as one of the most challenging of vocalists in thrash metal, with a gruff style that is more domineering than James Hetfield yet equally as racing as Tom Araya with the high-end shriek being another obvious if not obligatory thrash trait that he also had in the bag. As Testament grew, his style became more bellowing and boisterous but on the debut he found his feet quickly and established himself well in an already established scene.
The other thing that strikes me about The Legacy is how good the lead work is with Skolnick and Peterson doing energetic and well-paced solos on an album that isn't all that well produced to be fair (the mix leaves a fair bit to be desired in my book at least). There was also a real team effort on the songwriting front, with everyone barring Chuck putting in a shift and this shows certainly with the two guitarists (the chief songwriters) who sound cohesive and slick. Tracks like Alone In The Dark stick in your head for a lifetime after one listen and the energy throughout the whole thing is consistent. It never gets to Slayer-like speed yet still has a burning intensity akin to the aforementioned band, it just feels a tad more subtle in delivery.
Whilst obviously held back on the production/mixing job for me, The Legacy is still a great thrash metal record that deserves more credit than it often gets. The bits that shine - the vocals and guitars - are blinding. There are better debut albums yes but there aren't many of those bands with those better debuts still around building their own legacy like Testament still are.
